Member Reviews

It takes a certain kind of courage to write a one-note film and pack it with well-choreographed action set pieces without any of the trappings (barring an item number, sigh!) of a film where the hero is the saviour. For instance, the traditional mother sentiment is turned on its head — with the mother (Sudha Belawadi) telling others that the families of those in the police force should be brave — and there’s no romance angle that diverts the hero from his grand goal. This is one of the main reasons the film races past at a spiff two hours and 13 minutes. But what debut director Vijay Karthikeyaa has with him is an action star of Sudeep’s calibre. This is the kind of role Sudeep can do with his eyes closed — show brawn, fight, and casually spread his charisma around. And, he delights his core fan base with this film where he does all the things they’ve come to expect of him — kickass action, punch dialogues and a certain swagger that, strangely, comes effortlessly to someone also capable of deep nuance and sensitivity.

In a recent interview, actor Rajiv Thakur admitted that audiences that have seen him as a fixture on Kapil Sharma’s comedy shows will have no idea that he played a menacing terrorist in the spectacular streaming series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. And those who discovered him through IC 814 wouldn’t know that he has spent years as a part of Sharma’s silly troupe. In the Venn diagram of Indian entertainment, these audiences will never intersect, even though both IC 814 and The Great Indian Kapil Show are available on Netflix. Similarly, it is possible that cinephiles familiar with Takeshi Kitano through his art-house yakuza movies, or his memorable appearance in the hyper-violent Battle Royale, will collapse in shock they are told that he was so central to the game show Takeshi’s Castle that they named it after him. Kitano gets to play with his two creative personalities — the Golden Lion-winning filmmaker and the court jester — in his latest movie, Broken Rage, which was released on Prime Video with less fanfare than what you’d find at funerals in certain cultures.

सोचिए, एक लड़की जिसने आज के जमाने में शादी से पहले कभी इंटीमेट नहीं होने की कसम ली हो, जिसका बॉयफ्रेंड तीन साल से उस खास दिन का इंतजार कर रहा हो, उसे अचानक पता चले कि वो प्रेग्नेंट है। है ना विचित्र परिस्थिति! पर इसी अजीबो-गरीब सिचुएशन को काफी मजेदार तरीके से हैंडल करती है वेब सीरीज ‘ऊप्स! अब क्या?’, जो मशहूर अमेरिकन टीवी शो ‘जेन द वर्जिन’ का आधिकारिक रीमेक है। इस वेब सीरीज में ड्रामा है, कॉमिडी है, इमोशन है, और तो और मर्डर मिस्ट्री जैसे भरपूर मसाले हैं, जो कभी-कभी अतिरेक भरे लगने के बावजूद आपको बांधे रखते हैं। यह कहानी है रूही (श्वेता बसु प्रसाद) की, जिसने अपनी नानी को वचन दिया है कि वह शादी से पहले कभी फिजिकल रिलेशन नहीं बनाएगी। उसका ओमकार (अभय महाजन) जैसा ग्रीन फ्लैग ब्वॉयफ्रेंड है, जो तीन साल से अपने अरमानों को दबाकर रूही के इस वचन में उसका साथ दे रहा है। लेकिन तभी एक दिन पता चलता है कि रूही प्रेग्नेंट है।

हमारे आम मध्यमवर्गीय परिवारों के ज्यादातर माता-पिता बच्चों की बेहतर परवरिश के लिए अपने सपनों को कुर्बान कर देते हैं। लेकिन वही बच्चे बड़े होकर अपनी ही दुनिया में रम जाते हैं। मां-बाप के लिए उनके पास वक्त ही नहीं बचता और फिर, इन बेचारे बुजुर्गों के पास बचती है टूटे हुए सपनों की किरचें, अकेलापन और उससे उपजी झुंझलाहट। आज के दौर की इसी घर-घर की कहानी का भावुक चित्रण है, फिल्म कौशलजीज वर्सेज कौशल। ये कहानी कन्नौज के कौशल परिवार की है, जिसके मुखिया साहिल कौशल (आशुतोष राणा) कव्वाल बनने के सपने को कुर्बान कर अकाउंटेंट बन जाते हैं, ताकि बच्चों की पढ़ाई का खर्च सही से उठा सकें। वहीं, उनकी पत्नी संगीता (शीबा चड्ढा) ने बच्चों को पूरा समय देने के लिए अपने इत्र बनाने की चाहत दबा दी। पर नोएडा में एक ऐड एजेंसी में नौकरी करने वाले बेटे युग (पवैल गुलाटी) के पास घर आना तो दूर, मां-बाप से बात करने का भी वक्त नहीं रहता। बेटी भी बाहर एनजीओ में काम करती है। ऐसे में, घर में अकेले बचे साहिल और सीमा अपने-अपने सपनों को दोबारा जीने की कोशिश तो करते हैं, मगर एक-दूसरे के मन की बात नहीं समझ पाते। हर वक्त एक-दूसरे से लड़ते रहते हैं, लिहाजा एक दिन इस कलेश को खत्म करने के लिए दोनों तलाक लेने का फैसला लेते हैं। इधर, युग की गर्लफ्रेंड कियारा (ईशा तलवार) को ऐसा घर चाहिए, जहां सब हंसी-खुशी रहते हों। ऐसे में, मां-बाप के अलग होने के फैसले का बच्चों पर क्या असर पड़ता है? यह फिल्म देखकर पता चलेगा।

The Dhanush signature is all over Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam (NEEK). Usually one would find the writer and director’s stamp in their film but, with NEEK, it is a little extra. As an actor and a star, it is not just Dhanush’s artistic preoccupations that show up on the screen but also his favourite themes and persona, pet peeves and theories along with the usual homages that follow every big Tamil star. The writing on the wall is stark because we don’t see Dhanush on screen, but we see it in the writing, we hear it in the sound, we identify it in the intonations, and we get all the references. As people pointed out, the main lead is named Prabhu (Dhanush’s birth name), and he is a chef (what Dhanush wanted to become). In the final scene, just before the writer-director credits appear, Rajesh (a fun Mathew Thomas) is holding a ukulele and playing ‘Rowdy Baby’.

What happens when a mistake you commit uproots the life of an already struggling person? How do you overcome this? Does it make you realise your mistake or does it push you into the depths of depression? Director Ashwath Marimuthu’s ‘Dragon’ is a film that provides definite answers to these questions. D Ragavan (Pradeep Ranganathan), a archetypal ‘good boy’, is a gold medallist in school. He confesses his love to a girl after he gets awarded the gold medal. However, she rejects him, stating that she sometimes prefers ‘bad boys’, who are unruly and roam around the school with gethu (swag). Cut to his college days, D Ragavan becomes Dragon because of the rejection and has 48 standing arrears. What he earned in college was the love of Keerthi (Anupama Parameswaran).

EARLY ON in Drew Hancock’s Companion, two young women named Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Kat (Megan Suri) have a prickly moment on a boozy night. When Iris asks why Kat — a close friend of Iris’ new lover Josh (Jack Quaid) — doesn’t like her, a tipsy Kat says she just doesn’t like the ‘idea’ of her. “You make me feel replaceable,” she continues. The conceit of this confession is two-pronged. Iris is deeply in love with her new boyfriend Josh, but Kat is in an abusive relationship with a controlling Russian man; the obvious implication is that Kat is bitter. But the real implication emerges a scene or two later, when the film reveals that Iris (“Siri” when spelt backwards) is actually a companion robot. Up until then, it speaks volumes that the average male viewer may not be able to tell. Iris loves Josh so much that she is subservient to him — she wants to please him by hanging out with his friends on a weekend getaway, she craves to see him smile, and sex for them is basically Josh grunting and rolling over to sleep. It’s all too familiar. So Kat saying she feels “replaceable” by Iris is the film admitting that — in a world captured by the male gaze — a woman robot is no different from a woman.

Between done-to-death tropes and flimsily updated ones, Mere Husband Ki Biwi sticks to ancient formulae yet gives a semblance of keeping up with the times only to confirm that old habits die hard. In Mudassar Aziz’s routine rom-com, a divorcee dangles between his fiery ex and doting fiancée sparking off a battle for one-upmanship. It starts like a cheesy David Dhawan comedy salvaged by Govinda’s inimitable lunacy back in the day and advances into a My Best Friend’s Wedding rehash sans the deliciousness of Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz’s jell-o pitted against creme brulee. Except this return to the 1990s style of whimsy evokes more nausea than nostalgia with its drab humour and out of sync performances.

That Dhanush is an extraordinary actor is known to everyone. He also proved his mettle as a director with his debut film, Pa Paandi, and Raayan. His third directorial venture is Nilavuku Enmel Ennadi Kobam aka NEEK, a romantic comedy centred on a bunch of youngsters that generated positive buzz. Will it help Dhanush strike a hat-trick? Let’s find out! Prabhu (Pavish Narayan) is an aspiring chef who is in love with failure. His best friend, Rajesh (Mathew Thomas) has been by his side through ups and downs. Prabhu’s parents (Saranya Ponvannan and Aadukalam Naren) inform him about a potential match and force him to visit the girl’s home with them. With reluctance, he ends up at his school friend Preethi (Priya Prakash Varrier’s home. Prabhu and Preethi decide to date for a week before they can decide on moving forward.